Royals trade for Brewers outcast in latest effort to solve persistent pitching depth concerns

As the baseball world fixes their focus on the Midsummer Classic, the Royals front office has been busy tinkering with the roster in an effort to solve some lingering issues facing this team. As Royals fans have surely realized by now, their pitching depth has been in a lowly state all season primiarily due to injury.

They’ve made a series of trades and minor league signings to help bolster their dwindling depth and did so again on Tuesday. They swung a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers to acquire righty Easton McGee. This comes off the back of the Brewers designating him for assignment last Friday.

McGee had only thrown a pair of innings for Milwaukee this season and had some success having yet to surrender an earned run. However, his identical 4.50 K/9 and 4.50 BB/9 was likely a reason for him being cast aside. On top of that, a 5.52 ERA in 14.2 innings with the Brewers last season didn’t provide a ringing endorsement for keeping him around either.

He’s become somewhat a journeyman, as before 2025 he’d appeared with the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays briefly at the major league level while spending extended time in their minor league systems.

Easton McGee helps reinforce Royals underwhelming pitching depth

This is hardly the first midseason move the Royals have made this year to combat their plethora of injury woes. McGee joins a list with Connor Seabold, Randy Dobnak, Matt Moore, Scott Barlow, Dan Altavilla, Génesis Cabrera, Anthony Gose and most recently Vince Velasquez.

That being said with Cole Ragans and Kris Bubic on the major league injured list, minor league depth like Ryan Bergert and Ben Kudrna on the season-ending minor league IL and Alec Marsh having been out since the start of the season, the starting pitching depth has been in a constant state of turmoil.

Then, with Carlos Estévez, Nick Mears, Connor Seabold and James McArhtur being on the injured list in the bullpen, the injury bug has hit their pitching staff on all fronts.

Pair with that the underperformance, such as from arms like Mitch Spence and Eli Morgan along with now former minor league arm Aaron Sanchez and it hasn’t just been injuries that have taken aim at the Royals’ staff.

McGee’s minor league numbers aren’t crazy by any means, but 9.29 K/9 this season in Triple-A as well as 10.01 the year prior with a 3.59 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and .189 BAA gives some reason for promise for his future with the Royals as a depth arm. And the fact he still has a minor league option remaining is always makes for worthwhile and valuable flexibility.